Panthers Edge Predators

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Panthers coach Terry Murray, whose radio station in his car is always tuned to a country music station, had to feel right at home Saturday night.

Country artist Vince Gill was in the crowd, the music of Garth Brooks and Hank Williams Jr. blared from the loud speakers and a live band played during breaks.

Viktor Kozlov, Radek Dvorak and Mark Parrish also must have felt at home.

Each forward scored his seventh goal to lift the Panthers to a 4-2 victory over the Predators.

The Panthers' penalty killing has been strong for most of the season, but suddenly they have given up a power-play goal in each of the past five games.

The one Saturday night could have proven costly because after Parrish gave the Panthers a 3-1 lead, Nashville trimmed it to one when they turned Peter Worrell's roughing penalty into Patric Kjellberg's eighth goal.

Trevor Kidd was again the victim of limited shots by his teammates (21) and a lot by his opponent (34). Kidd, one day after being pulled in Dallas, improved to 13-4-2 with 32 saves.

The game was secured with eight seconds left with Pavel Bure's 14th into an empty net.

The Panthers may have dodged a bullet early in the second when, leading 2-1, Kidd was caught out of his net. Cliff Ronning, who scored Nashville's first goal, wrapped around the net and with it open, hit the post.

The puck fell into the crease where Ray Whitney, lying on the ice, put his hand over it, drew it into his body and shoveled it out.

Usually that results in a penalty shot, but to Nashville's dismay, neither referee Mick McGeough nor Brad Meier called it.

Like the Panthers when they were in their early years, the second-year Predators have had a license to obstruct all season.

There were few calls against, which was probably for the best. The Panthers' power play has been horrific for nearly a month.

They have two goals in their past 45 power plays and are 0 for 21 in the past six games.

Their best chance on the power play Saturday came when Robert Svehla, who hasn't scored since Oct. 20 (21 games) and had another off night, hit the post.

The Panthers didn't need the power play to win.

All they needed was Nashville goalie Tomas Vokoun in net.

He gave up two bad goals, including Parrish's winner from the top of the faceoff circle early in the third.

With both teams having played Friday night, a tightly checked game was expected. Although that would start to happen in the second period, in the first, there was a lot of open ice.

Two minutes into the game, Vokoun, who entered with an 0-7-1 record, 3.60 goals-against average and .876 save percentage, committed thievery when he turned away Rob Niedermayer on a 4-on-2.

But Vokoun wouldn't look so good a minute later when Kozlov's bullet from the blue line hit the back of the net.

Kozlov extended his point streak (two goals, three assists) to five and Scott Mellanby extended his point streak (two goals, four assists) to four with an assist.

The Predators tied the game at 1 at 10:07 when Ronning scored his 12th. Ronning would never have gotten the puck into the zone if Parrish had hit him in the neutral zone after coming off the bench. Instead, he lost positioning and tried to hook Ronning.

With the puck deep, Kimmo Timonen crossed behind the net and switched the puck with Ronning. Todd Simpson stayed with Timonen, but Parrish did not switch to cover Ronning.

Instead, Parrish was left without a man, Kidd was left searching near the right post and Ronning wrapped it in near the left post.

The Panthers regained the lead 2:13 later after some hard work behind the net from Cam Stewart and Dvorak.

With the two battling and absorbing a beating, Oleg Kvasha swung around and picked up the puck.

At the same time, Nashville captain and former Panther Tom Fitzgerald lost his man, Dvorak.

Dvorak went to the front of the net and Kvasha fed him with a good pass for his seventh goal.